No Peace Without Justice organises, in cooperation with the Canadian Government, a Justice Rapid Response {JRR} Coordinating Group Meeting in Ottawa, Canada, on 23-24 February 2009. The purpose of the meeting, which will see the participation of government representatives from 16 States – including Canada, Finland, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Costa Rica, Egypt, Kenya, Argentina and others – will be to engage further States in JRR activities and therefore strengthen political support for this inter-governmental cooperation mechanism.

The meeting will also provide an opportunity to discuss preparation of the first JRR Pilot Training Course to be held in Berlin in May 2009, whose purpose will be to validate the training program and begin establishing a roster of experts who could be deployed on a JRR mission, as well as to look at the modalities for deployment, with a view to developing and fine-tuning the process, identifying potential problems and proposing solutions.

JRR is an international cooperative mechanism for the supply of voluntary assistance at the request of a State or international institution, where the identification, collection and preservation of information would assist at any stage a wide range of international and transitional justice options. The JRR is a stand-by facility developed to enhance the international community's ability to assist in the provision of accountability processes for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and to ensure that international justice plays an integral role in post-conflict peace building.

In order to facilitate cooperation of partners in the JRR mechanism, No Peace Without Justice is acting as the Interim JRR Secretariat until modalities for coordination are further developed among the JRR participants or an international organization may be in a position to take over the coordination and implementation of the JRR mechanism.
For further information, contact Alison Smith on asmith@npwj.org or +32-486-986 235 or Nicola Giovannini on ngiovannini@npwj.org or +32-2-548-3913.